Creating outdoor spaces with natural stone has been popular
for thousands of years. Because of it
long life, difficulty to produce, and natural beauty, stone has historically
been used to denote sophistication, accomplishment, and permanence. Thanks to this extremely long life, many extraordinary
ancient stone projects have survived to this day. They serve as a reminder of just how
innovative, creative, and determined our ancestors were. While todays methods for roughly quarrying
stone are much different, our methods for carving each individual stone to fit
its desired project have not changed over time. Today we still shape and add character
to each of our individual stone pieces with a chisel and hammer. Until relatively recently stone chisels were used,
they just had to be a little bit harder than the stone the mason was
shaping. With the perfection of the
steel making process, largely done right here in Pittsburgh, steel chisels and
hammers have replaced stone tools. When
I see the skill level needed to carve stone with today’s steel it is hard to
imagine how out ancient ancestors we able to produce such an extremely high
level of craftsmanship with the tools they had.
Today natural stone is valued for its history, artistic
appeal, and strength. More importantly I
feel natural stone appeals to us somehow on a visceral level that cannot be
duplicated with other materials. I think
I can safely predict it will be in style for at least another thousand
years! For more information on our stone
crafting techniques check out our stone videos on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVnJoirlcud7G0baREQfYoWEExeEbHLRu
